Consultancy - Case study of Real-time Monitoring for Vaccination in the Philippines, Remote, Office of Innovation, 40 days within 3 months

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovate...

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

The Office of Innovation (OOI) is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

UNICEF's OOI creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.
• Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk-averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
• Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.

UNICEF’s Global Innovation Portfolios

Matching Today’s Challenges with Tomorrow’s Solutions ensures that all investments we make in innovation fit with our global aim of ensuring that every child can survive, thrive and live and learn in a safe, inclusive space, and that innovation is applied to the most pressing problems faced by some of the most vulnerable children and young people. In line with the Global Innovation Strategy, UNICEF’s innovation portfolio management approach aligns technical and financial resources to promising projects from across the organization that can accelerate results for children.

Through the development of UNICEF’s Global Innovation Strategy, nine portfolio focus areas were identified: learning, water and sanitation, maternal and newborn health, immunization, climate change, gender equality, humanitarian, youth, and mental health and psychosocial support. Through a problem-driven approach guided by the respective UNICEF Programme Groups (PG), each portfolio is committed to supporting the identification, development and scale-up of country-level innovative solutions, to meet the demands and priorities in line with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and ultimately the attainment of related SDGs.

Each portfolio will contain solutions that use new approaches, tools and technology that address key problems UNICEF is trying to solve for and with children and young people, and that have potential to scale and significantly accelerate results. Innovation solutions within the portfolios are selected based on their potential to accelerate results for children across multiple countries and regions. There can be one or more different categories (or types) of innovation in a portfolio, including digital innovation, social innovation, data innovation, physical products, innovative finance and frugal innovation.

Health Portfolio

At the rate of current progress, we will not meet our goals to reduce maternal mortality and improve newborn and maternal health. Eighty percent of newborn deaths are preventable, their causes include preterm birth, complications such as lack of breathing at birth, infections like pneumonia and sepsis, and birth defects. High impact interventions include treatments for pneumonia, vaccine coverage, building stronger health systems and services, care at birth and in the first week of life and engaging with mothers, health workers and their communities. UNICEF has identified a range of problems that, if solved, could unlock faster progress.

In particular, these problems for immunization innovation are:

1. Limited and fragmented data and their suboptimal use in decision-making, are some of the major barriers in driving vaccine demand and addressing supply chain operational challenges throughout the end-to-end spectrum of immunization programmes, from identifying and monitoring the zero-dose communities, to tracking and predicting vaccine stock management and the capacity for last-mile delivery. A data-driven approach is therefore required to support effective and proactive planning and integrated delivery within primary health care, to advance the progress towards the zero-dose agenda.
2. Immunization programmes have not been sufficiently applying behaviour science and people-centred approaches to develop and implement local tailored strategies with communities to reach unvaccinated and under vaccinated children and adult populations. In addition, the rapid proliferation and spread of misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines has posed a risk of losing the gains made in vaccine confidence and is negatively impacting public trust and confidence in routine immunization.

RT-VaMA project in the Philippines

The RT-VaMA (Real-time Vaccine Monitoring and Analysis) project in the Philippines will strengthen UNICEF’s innovation portfolio on immunization, which has been added as a priority area in response to the global COVID-19 emergency. Building on its success in supporting OPV (Oral poliovirus vaccines) and MR (measles-rubella) campaigns in the Philippines, this project is to scale up the implementation of a toolkit based on Open Data Kit (ODK) for monitoring immunization campaigns, that also has the potential to be used for COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Building on the successful implementation in the Philippines, and drawing from similar projects in Uganda, Mozambique, and Nigeria, this project to develop a deployment toolkit for real-time vaccination monitoring using ODK will also address gaps in timely data processing and analysis (under the problem statement on data gaps in the Humanitarian portfolio) for use in anticipatory decision-making and adaptive management, to ensure vaccine coverage reaches the most vulnerable. Thanks to the use of a widely diffused open standard (ODK), the deployment toolkit put within InForm can be adopted and piloted by other countries and regions sharing the same problems, not only to strengthen data systems in vaccination coverage but also to facilitate learning across countries, sectors and agencies.

How can you make a difference?

This case study is to collect and document detailed programme experience in the Philippines using real-time monitoring for immunization activities. It is to identify the critical factors that facilitate the use of digital technologies for real-time monitoring for immunization activities and identify elements of good practices and lessons learned to support countries interested in replicating and scaling similar efforts.

Complementing a report and related guidance on Digital Technologies for Real-Time Monitoring of Immunization Activities published in 2021 by UNICEF and Gavi, this case study will contribute to the global knowledge on real-time monitoring for vaccination activities. The findings of the case study will be used to:

• to assess how the RT-VaMA project in the Philippines contributes to current knowledge and best practices around real-time vaccination monitoring in UNICEF globally
• update the latest global evidence around real-time vaccination monitoring with up-to-date case studies
• encourage stock-taking and programme reflection process informed by success factors, best practices and areas for development
• guide the OOI/DCOE/PG/RO/CO to determine whether future investments are needed to support acceleration and scale-up of the RT-VaMA initiative

Scope of Work

The case study will be carried out remotely by an individual consultant as below with the following deliverables expected.

First, the consultant will review existing documents and data on the RTM experience in the Philippines Country Office and existing literature across the organization with regards to real-time monitoring for vaccination. This will include various guidance notes, case studies, lessons learned, and best practices documented by various UNICEF offices including the Office of Innovation, Programme Division, Information and Communication Technology Division and DICE (Digital Health Centre of Excellence). Multiple channels will be used to search for and obtain relevant resources, including Internet searches and consultations with UNICEF staff members at all levels. This will help answering guiding questions 1.1-1.3 and 2.1-2.5 below as well as to determine key elements of successful scale-up of real-time vaccine monitoring systems to answer guiding questions 3.1-3.5.

Second, the consultant will collect primary data working with the Philippines Country Office and relevant colleagues within UNICEF primarily to answer guiding questions 1.1-1.3 and 3.1-3.6 below. Depending on the availability of data provided by the Country Office, primary data collection is likely to be key informant interviews only.

Third, the consultant will draft a draft case study (Deliverable A), which will be provided to CO, EAPRO, OOI, PG Immunization, and DCOE for review and comments. The results will be presented in internal webinars for these stakeholders (Deliverable B). All written and verbal comments provided during the webinars are expected to be incorporated in the final report; a 2-page summary brief is also expected to be delivered after the webinars (Deliverable C). The summary brief will focus on summarizing key elements of effective real-time vaccination monitoring systems and key areas for consideration for its adoption, acceleration, and scale-up.

Timeline and payment schedule

The assignment will be carried out by an individual, international consultant with a proposed timeline below. The total number of days estimated is 40 days. The assignment may include a potential visit to the Philippines for key informant interviews based on the agreement of UNICEF project team.

Deliverable

Number of Working days

Deadline

1. A draft report

30 days

15 October, 2022

2. Internal webinars & Slide deck

5 days

30 October, 2022

3. Final report & 2-page executive summary

5 days

15 November, 2022

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in public health, social science, innovation, or other relevant fields *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of five years of relevant working experience in the subject matter, including innovative monitoring and vaccination programmes
• Strong analytical background including planning for and conducting analytical exercises
• Experience in conducting reviews, lessons learned, case studies
• Experience conducting qualitative research (including key informant interviews) analysing large quantities of data/documents and synthesizing them
• Experience working with the UN system, NGOs, governments in the development/humanitarian context
• Experience working in the Philippines is an asset
• Knowledge of United Nations - particularly UNICEF - programming, processes and work streams an asset.
• Excellent analytical and research skills
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written outputs and ability to present in English
• Proficiency in Windows MS Office (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• Ability to develop and maintain networks with a variety of stakeholders
• Good facilitation skills and analytical, problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Ability to convey an informed and professional demeanour toward internal and external partners and stakeholders
• Ability to participate in open dialogue and value diverse opinions, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organized manner
• Ability to work in a team and multi-task as needed
• Fluency in English is required, strong written and verbal competency is necessary.

Payment details and further considerations

• Monthly payment, based on monthly tasks and progress reports, approved upon monthly review with supervisor.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance
• Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA). To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.